Vision
by Iceblossom22
Summary: Non-bending AU. Reviews are welcome! Zutara. Mentions of Ty Lokka. Read now!  R&R!


Sasha: I warn thee. If this sucks, I'm not responsible.

Lauren: Yeah, that'd be me. Sorry, I'm just better at doing AU's

Ardente: Italian for Fiery. (Sorry. I read this somewhere and decided to stick with it. Original Zutarian who used this name, I give you full credit)

Astre: French for star! (I was thinking of something else, but it actually meant dishwater. I don't think Katara would like that...

Katara: Damn right I won't!

Lauren: I will leave now as not to suffer the wrath of an angry -pregnant and hormonal- waterbender. *runs for her life*

Katara: YOU!

-x-x-x-

Zuko Ardente had an odd dream once when he was twelve, just after he met Mai. (He liked her well enough back then, but not enough to tell her that he saw themselves as married, like she did.)

He saw himself in his dream, older (twenty-three or twenty-four, he guessed.) and standing at the altar in a white tux with a red tie, a beautiful girl in pale blue that almost looked white by his side. When it was time to lift the bride's veil and kiss her, he saw that his bride was a beautiful brunette he had never seen before.

Her eyes were blue, specked with violet and her cheeks were stained with a delicate blush that took his breath away. He leaned forward, not even caring that the girl held no interest for him. The beauty was his bride, even if it was only a dream, it was time for the ceremonial kiss.

Their lips met, and he awoke. He dubbed her, "Katara," thinking how much her eyes were sparkling like the the ocean at sunset before their kiss.

"Katara Ardente," he murmured sleepily. "What a beautiful name."

He thought no more of that dream after that night, dismissing it because he was a boy, and boys did not dream of weddings.

A mere four years later, he met Katara Astre.

The sixteen-year-old resembled his bride closely. In fact, the first time they had spoken in public, he had stared at her for a full fifteen seconds before smiling angelically and saying, "Hello, I'm Zuko."

When he first saw her in Kyoshi Academy, his eyes widened slightly and he whispered, "Katara?"

Katara looked up suddenly as if someone had called her, but Zuko had quickly looked away. "Ty, did someone call my name?"

"No, why?" answered Ty Lee.

"No reason."

Zuko walked away, slightly annoyed.

After convincing himself that he was just going to marry someone that was probably distantly related to her, he was finally able to treat her with the same kindness as he did everyone else.

It was only after a few months, however that he noticed how brightly and beautifully her cobalt blue eyes sparkled, and his heart skipped a beat.

In anger, he had called her annoying when they encountered each other -by accident- on the rooftop area of their school.

Her eyes asked, "Why?"

He refused to think about the answer after he noticed the question in her eyes. "Because, you are a _peasant_. And yet you managed to get into Kyoshi Academy."

_Because you look like Katara. Because you look like my bride._

After that, he could no longer hide his true personality around her, and he treated her like crap while his heart told him to treat her like the bride he knew she was going to be. He taunted her mercilessly, and she was beginning to get used to this side of him.

A few guys -Haru and Jet- completely ignored Zuko as a competitor for Katara's heart to battle against each other. In their haste to make a clear winner for Katara's heart against the other, they had practically given the prize to Zuko. (Aang had given up early, pursuing the flute player, Toph, instead.)

Zuko had it planned out.

Get her used to the idea that he had a dark side, tease her mercilessly while ravishing her with gifts, all in order to make her realize his feelings for her (and in turn, her feelings for him).

It was obvious to him that she had fallen in love with him, but had disregarded it as a feeling of friendship.

She avoided him every chance she got after she had gotten used to his dark side, she blushed when referring to him by first name, she blushed mostly when he (and not when the others) called her by her first name, and most of all, the way she would stare at him from across campus when she thought he wasn't looking. (Although on occasions when he was speaking to her in private, he would notice how she was staring at his lips…)

He enjoyed tormenting her, but when he realized he had fallen in love with her (soon after Sokka had started dating Ty Lee), he was torn between disgust and discontentment. What kind of idiot was he, expressing his love for a girl the way a stupid eighth-grade boy would, by teasing her and mocking her?

-x-x-x-

After leaving The Academy, he didn't see her much, but he called her almost every day. Azula kept in constant contact with her, keeping a close eye on the males around her.

"Nobody's making a move on her, Zuzu," she said in distress. "It's quite odd!"

He was silent, but happy on the inside. "Are you sure, 'Zula?"

"I am." she nodded.

On her birthday, he called her in the morning and told her to get dressed. "If you're not out your door in ten minutes, I'm leaving and never coming back."

She was out the door in three.

They sat side by side in his car.

"Ardente." she began. "..."

"No need for that anymore, now Katara." he interrupted.

"Zuko-" she began.

"What, no annoying additions to my name?" he asked with a smirk.

"Zuko," she scowled. "Where are we going, and why are you kidnapping me on a Saturday?"

"Isn't it your birthday?" he asked mockingly, and she nodded hesitantly. "Well, we're going to spend the day together."

"…!" Katara stared out the window, red. "Aren't you supposed to be at college?"

"Maybe." he smirked. "I came home."

"What, just for me?" she asked sarcastically.

Zuko smirked, leaning over to her. His face was a few centimeters from hers, and their eyes locked. "What happened to the old Katara?"

She was blushing so much it was unnatural. "W-What?"

"Katara." Zuko said, his lips pulling down into a fake, heartbroken smile. "My dear, darling Katara? The one that I loved exchanging insults with,"

Katara blushed even more when he said 'My dear, darling Katara?'

"—The one that I—" he inhaled, trying to calm his racing heart. "—that I love?"

"You lo—?" Katara was interrupted by the collision of their lips.

She expected (in the half-second before their lips touched) that his kiss would be just as how he used to treat her: mocking.

Instead, she almost fainted with the amount of raw desire she felt in his kiss. His arms slipped around her, and without knowing, one hand went to his back and one was buried in his glorious black hair. One of his hands traveled from her waist to the back of her head, deepening their kiss.

Katara was sure that is she had not been sitting down, she would've fell to the ground, as her knees went weak and her legs felt like jelly.

Zuko broke the kiss, his need for air overpowering his desire to ravish her with his lips until she fainted.

Katara was silent for a long while, and Zuko was deeply afraid that he had scared her.

"Zuko?" she whispered.

"Y-yes?" he asked, his heart pounding in his chest so loud he could swear it could be heard in Jakarta!

"Aren't you going to ki—" She stopped in the middle of her sentence, giggling. "Did you just stutter?"

"Uh," Zuko racked his mind for a good answer. " 'Aren't you going to ki—'? What were you going to say?"

Katara blushed, her eyes cast downwards. "Aren't you going to…kiss me…again?"

"Hm?" Zuko asked, eyebrow raised teasingly. "What?"

"Oh!" Katara pouted while trying to hide a smile. "Just kiss me."

"As the lady wishes," Zuko said teasingly before leaning in for another kiss.

-x-x-x-

"Katara?" Zuko asked one evening, his arm slung carelessly around her shoulders, and his eyes on the plasma-screen television.

"Hm?" Katara, who was leaning on his shoulder, smiled up at him. "What's bothering you, love?"

"I'm twenty-three now…" Zuko turned to look at Katara.

"So?" Katara asked, turning to face him. "Are you saying you're old?"

"You're twenty-two." Zuko took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart.

"Mm-hm." Katara said, wondering where the conversation was going.

"When I was twelve," Zuko started. "I had a dream I was twenty-three."

"Really?" Katara asked, scrunching her eyebrows. "That's cool, if a little odd."

"And I was getting married to a girl I had never seen before." he continued.

"…" _Was he going to break up with her to search for his mystery girl?_

"She had blue-violet eyes, her skin was slightly tan, and her hair was like flowing chocolate." Zuko said.

"A-Are you going to break up with me to look for her?" Katara whispered softly. "Because I totally understand if you do…"

"What, no!" Zuko protested. "She looked exactly like you!"

"Wait, what?"

"I don't know why I had that dream, but the girl was exactly how you look now." Zuko continued. "And I woke up when we kissed."

"…" Katara was silent, and Zuko was afraid he said something wrong. "Continue, Zuko."

"When I woke up, I named her Katara, because her eyes were sparkling like the ocean at sunset." Zuko's eyes bore into her. "Katara Ardente."

"…Do you believe dreams can come true?" Katara asked.

"I've been working to make it come true for a long time." Zuko confessed. "But I can't make it come true. Only one person can now."

"So why don't we make your dream come true?" Katara smiled.

"You'll marry me?" Zuko asked, handing her a ring with two small diamonds with a larger sapphire between them.

Katara took the ring. "Anything to make your dream come true, Zuko."

-x-x-x-

"Do you, Zuko Ardente, take this woman, Katara Astre, to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do."

"Do you, Katara Astre, take this man, Zuko Ardente, to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do."

"Then you may now kiss the bride."

Zuko turned to face Katara, "Katara."

"Zuko," Katara breathed, her face flushed with excitement.

Their lips met, and Zuko woke up.

-x-x-x-

"It couldn't have been a dream." Zuko murmured. "I couldn't have gone through eleven years of my life in one night." he said, sitting up.

"Zuko?" Someone groaned from beside him. "What's the matter?"

He turned to face a drowsy brunette with blue-violet eyes. "Oh, I thought it was a dream."

Katara grinned. "You had a dream about you marrying me?"

"Yeah, how did you know?" Zuko asked.

"I had the same dream." Katara grinned. "Except instead of it being the last eleven years, it's only the last six."

"Hm, I guess we're a lot alike." Zuko smiled. "It's still pretty hard to believe we've been married for a week."

"It's harder to believe that I'm living in your beach house." Katara scoffed. "I used to come here every day since my birthday that year, but I've never had my own house before…"

"I love you." Zuko said suddenly.

"Wha—?" Katara was interrupted.

Zuko kissed her gently, as if she was fragile as glass.

When they broke apart, Katara smiled at him, and whispered, "Love you, more."

"Impossible." Zuko pulled his wife into a hug, and Katara snuggled against him.

"And to think that if you never had that dream about our wedding, we wouldn't be here right now."

"Well, you wouldn't be." Zuko smiled jokingly.

"Hey, you wouldn't be either." Katara protested.

"Didn't you say just after the wedding that you bought this house only because you knew you were going to marry me after we started dating?"

"Well, there is that…" Zuko chuckled.

"You didn't marry me just because of that dream, right?" Katara asked, her voice sad.

"You're asking me this now?" Zuko asked, a laugh on the verge of escaping his lips.

"ZUKO!" Katara pouted.

"Kidding." Zuko thought a while. "Well, I suppose that the dream was a big part, but I really did fall for you."

"…I don't know if I should be happy or mad." Katara laughed.

"Be happy." Zuko snickered. "If it wasn't for my dream, you'd be with Aang or Haru"

"Haru is... weird, Jet's an idiot," Katara grimaced. "Aang's like a brother…"

Zuko smirked proudly. "Then I'm glad I had that dream, if I saved you from them."

Katara raised an eyebrow. "Well, I wouldn't say saved, exactly."

Zuko pouted in a way that didn't really match his normal attitude. "Well."

Katara hugged him closely. "I love you most though."

Zuko coughed, obviously uncomfortable with the subject. "I…uh, I love you too."

He kissed the top of her head, and they fell asleep in each others' arms .


End file.
